Three cheers to Mujasa’s ODF status

In 2016, Mujasa became the first village in UP to get ODF tag

LUCKNOW: Mujasa, a small hamlet in Malihabad tehsil of Lucknow, wore a festive look on the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on Wednesday. The day also marked the third anniversary of its Open Defecation Free (ODF) status.

In 2016, Mujasa became the first village in UP to get the ODF tag.

“It’s not just Gandhi Jayanti for us, it’s the third anniversary of a new era that we entered three years ago. Hence, we have painted the walls yellow, with ODF slogans on them,” said Mohammed Miyan, village head.

Mujasa, a success story now, saw its transformation in October 2016, when efforts to make it an ODF village first began under Swachh Bharat Mission, which the Panchayati Raj department launched with the help of an international NGO WaterAid India and city-based NGO Vatsalya.

Apart from Mujasa, the department and NGOs had shortlisted gram panchayats from seven blocks of the district in the first phase. These included gram panchayat Raipur from Mal block, Mujasa from Malihabad, Mangtaiyaa from Mohanlalganj, Papnamau from Chinhat, Dighoi from Bakshi ka Talab, Makdampur from Sarojini Nagar and Begariyamau from Gosainganj.

There are around 17 villages in the seven blocks. Officials said Mujasa took the lead and became first the ODF village.

However, the transformation of Mujasa was not easy, said NGOs.

“Our volunteers along with dedicated officers worked day and night to make the village open defecation free,” said Anjali

Tripathy, program coordinator, UP WaterAid in India.

Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) was perhaps the first step, wherein NGOs tried to change the mindset of villagers, who seemed more ‘comfortable to the fields’ than relieving themselves in the ‘pucca’ toilets constructed under the mission.

Mujasa has a population of around 3,200 and 500 plus houses. A majority of houses already had toilets and in the remaining 200 houses, the department recently got the toilets constructed, said the village head. The department was also constructing around 80 septic tanks to cater to the needs of the villagers.

Counsellors and a vigilance squad played a crucial role in bringing the ODF tag to the village. “The teams resorted to various ways to check people from defecating in the open. One of these was to blow the whistle or to call people by their names to tackle them psychologically,” said the village head.

Manish Bansal, chief development officer (CDO), said construction of toilets was a continuous process. “So far, we have constructed more than 2 lakh toilets. As many as 1,60,000 toilets were constructed in the first phase and in the second phase we have constructed around 60,000,” he said.